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I Hear Dallas is Great!

Austin was a great place to grow up. It’s where I was “home brewed” so to speak. I got to spend a lot of time outside in the Green Belt, Zilker, all the springs. I heard both sides of politics. Nongeneric music was everywhere. Low priced organic food was always an option, and it was not a crowded city. In fact, I grew up calling it a town. Austin was a town.

Today most of these things are questionable. Somehow, someone told Californian how nice Austin was and Californian told the world. Ever since everything has been slowly hitting the fan. Multiple times I have been in class here in Savannah and someone mentions how Austin is suppose to be a great place for artist, or that the tech companies are all flocking there. This is normally followed by me groaning and telling them to move to Portland. I don’t like what all these people are doing to my town, or how greedy they are making Austin politicians.

A year ago my family had to leave the home I grew up in South Austin. That place, that neighborhood was my home, my heaven, and we had to leave because the property tax had gotten to high. This is not a new story, other families have had to do the same and even others have been considering it for years. Recently Austin’s mayor spoke out about his concerns that Austin’s growing housing costs are running out our musicians, one of the reasons people started moving to Austin in the first place.

Austin was not ready to grow this fast. Natives didn’t want it to grow we thought it was perfect the way it was. Now natives are being kicked out and soon there might not be anything authentically Austin left.

So politicians, get your shit together. New corporate companies coming to Austin, don’t change Austin and don’t try to make it better by upping prices. People thinking of moving to Austin or who are new to Austin, respect. And Austin moms feel free to make sure everyone stays in line. Because growing up in Austin was great and someday I would like to raise a family in a similar Austin.

P.S California is still having a water crisis so Austin needs to get at least the traffic semi-fixed before more of them move to Austin.